When OPM relaunched USAJobs in October, the site crashed under the weight of millions of job seekers. Berry described the first weeks as a “death spiral.”

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The retirement system, however, is a more immediate concern in light of its increasing backlog. Berry said OPM falls behind by 1,900 retiree applications a month, and the agency has seen a surge in retirements in 2011.

Prior to working at the FAA, Bowen was the chief information officer at Blue Shield of California.